THE  RELATIONS 


OF 


CHRISTIANITY  TO  LAW 


AND 


THE  LEGAL  PROFESSION. 


A  DISCOURSE. 


KEY.  E.  P.  EOGERS, 

PASTOR   OF    THE    FIRST    I'liEsB VTERIiN    CHURCH,    AUGUSTA.    GA. 


CHARLESTON: 

STEAM     POWER-PRESS     OF     WALKER    AND     JAMES. 
1852. 


T 


TO    THE 

AUGUSTA    BAR, 

MANY   OF    WHOSE   MEMBERS   ARE    AMONG   THE    AUTHOR'S   CONGREGATION,    AND   OF    THE 
NUMBER   OF    HIS    MOST    VALUED    PERSONAL    FRIENDS, 

THIS  DISCOURSE 

IS 

RESPECTFULLY    DEDICATED. 


PREFACE. 


IT  may  be  proper  to  state  that  this  Discourse  was  prepared  for  the  Author's  con- 
gregation, among  whom  are  a  large  number  of  highly  respectable  members  of  the 
Legal  Profession.  It  was,  subsequently,  preached  before  the  Governor  and  members 
of  the  Legislature  of  Georgia,  during  the  late  session  at  Milled  geville.  The  sub- 
stance of  it  has  also  appeared  in  the  form  of  an  Essay,  in  the  Southern  Presbyterian 
Review  for  October,  1851.  The  kind  reception  with  which  it  has  met,  and  the 
suggestions  of  valued  friends,  that  it  might  be  more  extensively  useful  in  this  form, 
must  be  the  Authors  apology  for  thus  presenting  it  to  the  public. 

The  Author  begs  leave  to  acknowledge  his  obligations  to  the  able  productions  of 
Rev.  Dr.  Spring  of  New-York,  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman  of  Philadelphia,  and  Samuel 
Warren,  Esq.,  of  London,  for  valuable  assistance  in  the  preparation  of  this  Dis- 
course. E.  P.  R. 

AUGUSTA,  JAN.  1852. 


DISCOURSE. 


Romans  3  :  31. — "  Do  we  then  make  void  the  law  through  faith  \     God  forbid  1 
Tea,  we  establish  the  law." 

IN  these  words  the  great  Apostle  paid  his  impressive  tri- 
bute, as  a  Christian,  to  the  ancient  moral  law.  It  had  been 
said  by  cavillers  against  the  Gospel,  that  the  revelation  of  a 
new  ground  of  justifying  man,  other  than  by  his  own  obe- 
dience to  the  law,  was  calculated  to  weaken  its  force,  and 
sully  its  glory.  .  The  Apostle  repels  this  insinuation,  as  to  the 
licentious  tendency  of  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith, 
and  shows  conclusively,  that  it  tended  rather  to  exalt  and 
commend  the  law  to  the  reverence  and  obedience  of  every 
true  and  pious  heart.  The  truth,  that  its  claims  were  satis- 
fied with  nothing  less  than  the  obedience,  sufferings  and  death 
of  the  Son  of  God,  who  honored  it  alike  by  his  life  of  obe- 
dience, and  his  death  of  agony  and  shame ;  and  the  truth, 
that  faith  in  Christ,  and  love  for  him,  leads  every  believer  to 
reverence  more  sacredly,  and  obey  more  scrupulously,  all  its 
requirements,  both  testify  to  the  influence  of  the  Gospel  upon 
the  law,  and  prove,  that  instead  of  making  it  void,  it  estab- 
lished it  on  an  immoveable,  and  everlasting,  and  glorious 
foundation. 

But  while  the  system  of  religion  taught  by  our  Saviour  and 
his  inspired  Apostles,  is  not  in  opposition  to  the  divine  code, 
known  as  the  moral  law,  neither  is  it  opposed  to  the  science 
of  human  jurisprudence.  Nowhere  is  human  law  so  well 
defined,  respected  and  obeyed  ;  nowhere  does  it  so  fully  carry 
out  its  noble  mission,  as  :he  guardian  of  human  rights,  and 
the  defender  of  man's  dearest  interests,  as  where  Christiani- 


8 

ty  is  most  widely  diffused  among  the  people.  Those  who  are 
the  most  zealous  advocates  for  the  support  of  law  and  the 
maintenance  of  public  justice,  who  cultivate  and  uphold  a 
law-loving  and  law-abiding  spirit  in  the  community,  are  not 
the  vicious,  and  depraved,  and  abandoned  portion  of  the  peo- 
ple, but  they  are  the  sober,  the  virtuous,  the  godly — those 
who  reverence  the  divine,  and  therefore  are  bound  to  respect 
the  human,  law.  And  if  the  Genius  of  lawlessness  and  an- 
archy would  seek  to  establish  her  reign  of  terror  in  the  state, 
and  trample  beneath  her  feet  the  dearest  rights  of  men,  her 
first  blow  should  be  levelled  against  the  religion  of  the  Bible, 
for  nothing  would  prove  such  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  her 
progress,  as  the  conservatism  of  piety.  Faith  must  be  abol- 
ished, if  men  would  make  void  even  Human  Law. 

One  great  distinction  between  a  Christian  and  a  Heathen 
nation,  is  the  enthronement  of  Law,  in  its  majesty,  among 
the  people,  and  the  regular,  unfettered,  impartial  administra- 
tion of  justice.  In  such  a  land,  the  science  of  jurisprudence 
will  be  honored  as  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  sciences,  and 
the  legal  profession,  whose  vocation  it  is  to  expound  and  ap- 
ply its  principles,  will  be  deservedly  regarded  as  one  of  the 
most  honorable  and  important  of  all  earthly  vocations.  It  is 
well  said  by  an  eminent  English  jurist  and  author,*  "  that  the 
due  discharge  of  the  varied,  arduous  and  responsible  duties 
of  the  lawyer,  his  intellectual  and  moral  fitness  for  his  pro- 
fession, is  a  matter  of  vital  concernment  to  society  at  large ; 
to  every  individual  in  the  community,  from  peer  to  peasant ; 
nay,  from  the  august  occupant  of  the  throne,  down  to  the 
very  humblest  subject  in  her  dominions."  And  a  distinguish- 
ed divine  of  our  own  countryf  also  remarks  with  truth,  that 
"  the  moral  character  of  the  Bar,  no  less  than  its  character 
for  learning  and  ability,  is  a  matter  of  deep  and  universal 
concern.  It  is  not  a  matter,  Gentlemen  of  the  Bar,"  says  he, 
"which  pertains  merely  to  your  reputation  as  individuals, 
nor  to  the  relations  between  yourselves  and  your  clients. 
Even  if  it  were,  it  might  be  pertinent  to  ask,  who  are  your 
clients  ?  For  the  purposes  of  this  argument,  the  whole  com- 

*  Samuel  Warren,  F.R.S.,  of  the  Inner  Temple,  London, 
t  Rev.  Dr.  Boardman,  of  Philadelphia. 


munity  are  your  clients.  There'is  no  citizen,  however  hum- 
ble, or  however  exalted,  who  may  not  at  any  time  become 
your  client.  There  is  not  one  among  our  honorable  and  opu- 
lent merchants,  among  the  ministers  of  religion,  among  the 
able  and  upright  jurists  who  preside  over  your  own  courts  ; 
nay,  not  one  among  our  refined  and  gentle  females,  our  moth- 
ers, wives,  and  daughters,  who  may  not  on  any  day  be  com- 
pelled to  invoke  your  protection.  You  are  the  conservators 
of  our  property,  of  our  liberty,  our  lives,  our  characters,  the 
guardians  of  our  fire-sides,  the  defenders  of  our  altars.  Have 
we  no  stake,  then,  in  your  character  ?  Have  we  no  right  to 
insist,  that  a  profession  which  is  the  depositary  of  our  most 
sacred  earthly  interests,  shall  omit  nothing  that  may  help  to 
qualify  them  for  their  high  trust  ?  that  they  shall  not  only 
make  themselves  masters  of  their  noble  science,  in  its  princi- 
ples and  its  technicalities,  but  cultivate  those  elevated  moral 
sentiments  which  alone  can  assure  us  that  our  confidence 
will  not  be  misplaced?" 

The  Bar,  likewise,  in  all  civilized  countries,  and  especially 
in  our  own,  is  the  royal  road  to  distinction  in  the  state.  Law- 
yers are  the  leading  men,  generally,  in  all  public  movements, 
and  exert  a  greater  influence  than  any  other  class  of  men,  in 
guiding  and  controlling  the  public  mind.  They  are  at  the 
head  of  our  parties,  they  are  usually  the  selected  orators  in 
our  popular  assemblies,  they  shape  the  course  of  our  legisla- 
tive bodies,  they  fill  the  chairs  of  state,  and  bear  the  insignia 
of  office  ;  they  are,  in  a  word,  our  public  men.  They  direct 
the  councils  and  policy  of  the  nation,  they  are  often  our  re- 
presentatives at  foreign  courts,  and  have  our  national  honor 
in  their  keeping.  Surely  it  cannot  be  a  matter  of  too  great 
importance,  that  the  legal  profession  be  qualified  to  discharge 
its  high  behests,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  be  at  once  the  orna- 
ment and  the  safeguard  of  the  state. 

In  considering  the  relations  of  Revealed  Religion  to  Juris- 
prudence, it  will  be  pertinent  to  glance  briefly  at  the  history 
of  Legal  Science.* 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  that  the  first  written  code  of  law 

*  See  Springs'  "  Obligations  of  the  World  to  the  Bible,"  to  whose  able  lecture 
on  Legislative  Science,  the  author  is  indebted  for  valuable  aid. 


10 

ever  delivered  to  any  people,  is  found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
The  Mosaic  code,  delivered  by  the  great  Legislator  of  the 
Universe  to  His  ancient  people,  is  the  first  published  code 
which  the  history  of  the  world  has  recorded  ;  and,  it  may  be 
remarked,  that  it  is  a  very  perfect  system  of  law.  We  know 
that  it  has  been  said,  that  in  the  early  history  of  our  race, 
when  the  state  of  human  society  was  ruder,  their  manners 
simpler,  and  the  whole  social  structure  less  complicated  and 
ramified  than  in  later  days,  codes  of  law  were  necessarily 
rude  and  simple,  and  that  the  science  of  jurisprudence,  like 
other  sciences,  has  been  enlarged  and  improved  from  age  to 
age,  as  the  wants  of  society  demanded,  and  increasing  civili- 
zation and  refinement  ensured.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  that 
great  additions  have  beea  made  to  this  science  in  the  pro- 
gress of  time,  and  that  the  application  of  its  principles  has 
been  extended  over  a  vastly  wider  range.  Mercantile  Law 
has  had  its  origin  and  made  its  progress  since  the  Mosaic 
code  was  published,  for  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  not  to  any 
extent  a  commercial,  but  an  agricultural  people.  And  the 
isolated  character  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  would, 
doubtless,  leave  much  for  after  ages  to  add  in  the  form  of 
International  Law.  The  condition  of  different  countries, 
too,  would  call  for  special  enactments,  appropriate  to  those 
countries.  But  when  you  look  at  the  great  principles  of  le- 
gal science,  the  genius  of  human  jurisprudence,  you  will  find 
them  in  that  first  great  code  which  the  ancient  Hebrew  Pa- 
triarch received  from  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  amid  the 
thunders  and  lightnings  of  Sinai. 

Foremost  in  that  code,  coming  with  all  the  authority  of  the 
Legislator  of  Heaven,  stands  The  Moral  Law. 

This  wonderful  and  comprehensive  code  is  not,  as  some 
have  asserted,  a  system  for  the  government  of  individual  con- 
duct, in  which  the  Divine  Being,  or  conscience,  his  vice-ge- 
rent  in  the  human  heart,  alone  sits  as  Judge.  It  is  true  that 
this  law  has  to  do  with  the  relations  which  man  sustains  to 
the  moral  government  of  God  ;  that  it  concerns  the  inner  as 
well  as  the  outer  life  of  men  ;  that  it  extends  its  sceptre  into 
that  mysterious  mental  and  moral  realm,  over  whose  affairs 
human  law  has  no  jurisdiction,  and  issues  mandates  which 


,    11 

earthly  tribunals  cannot  enforce.  But  it  is  no  less  true,  ac- 
cording to  an  able  writer,*  that  it  lays  down  principles  and 
rules  for  men  in  communities  and  states,  which  are  essential 
to  their  very  existence,  which  indeed  lie  at  the  foundation  of 
human  society.  No  social  organization,  he  remarks,  could 
exist,  much  less  could  it  advance  and  secure  the  best  interests 
of  men,  which  was  not  based  upon  the  statutes  of  the  Moral 
Law.  These  statutes  are,  in  fact,  but  the  embodiment  of 
those  immutable  and  eternal  principles  of  right  and  wrong, 
to  which  God  himself  always  conforms,  and  which  are  desig- 
nated by  writers  on  Jurisprudence,  as  the  "  Law  of  Nature." 
This  moral  law  "  is  founded  in  those  relations  of  justice,  that 
existed  in  the  nature  of  things  antecedent  to  any  positive 
precept."  The  things  which  it  requires  are  right,  and  those 
which  it  forbids  are  wrong,  by  the  universal,  immutable  ver- 
dict of  reason,  of  man's  natural  constitution,  as  well  as  by 
the  various  codes  of  all  but  the  most  barbarous  and  degraded 
of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  All  the  enactments  of  human 
law,  respecting  man's  duties  to  his  fellow-man,  spring  from 
this  code,  and  to  this  they  owe  all  their  force.  The  crimes 
of  murder,  of  theft,  of  adultery,  of  perjury,  are  prohibited 
and  punished  by  human  law,  but  they  only  re-echo  the  con- 
demnation of  the  divine  code.  Human  legislation  can  add 
nothing  to  the  unlawfulness  of  those  offences.  It  arises  out 
of  their  being  in  opposition,  to  the  laws  of  God,  and  this  in- 
trinsic unlawfulness  cannot  be  affected  by  human  enact- 
ments. All  the  legislation  on  earth  could  not  take  away  the 
moral  turpitude  from  murder,  nor  make  it  right  for  a  man  to 
rob  his  fellow  of  his  money  or  his  good  name.  The  Divine 
code  has  made  it  wrong,  the  law  of  nature  asserts  boldly  its 
unlawfulness,  and  human  jurisprudence  can  only  add  its 
feeble  assent  to  these  majestic  enunciations. 

And  when  we  examine  those  three  general  precepts  so  fa- 
mous in  human  jurisprudence,  to  which  the  Emperor  Justi- 
nian, in  the  sixth  century,  reduced  "  the  whole  doctrine  of 
Law,"  "  honeste  vivere,  alterum  non  ladere,  suum  cuique  tri- 
buere"  what  is  there  here  but  the  very  spirit  of  the  moral 
code  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  legislator  ?  Let  these  precepts 

*  Dr.  Spring. 


12 

be  carried  out  into  practice,  and  what  statute  of  that  code 
would  not  be  observed  ?  Ancient  and  venerable  as  are  the 
Institutes  of  Justinian,  there  is  an  earlier  and  more  authori- 
tative system  than  his;  and  for  his  three  great  principles, 
which  are  so  often  quoted  by  the  expounders  of  human  codes, 
we  must  go  back  not  only  five  hundred  years  to  the  God- 
man  Christ  Jesus,  and  his  heavenly  teachings,  but  we  must 
travel  across  the  waste  of  twenty  centuries,  and  behold  the 
hoary  patriarch  of  Israel  receiving  them  from  the  hand  of 
Jehovah,  on  the  trembling  and  smoking  mountain. 

But  when  we  examine  the  civil  code  of  the  ancient  He- 
brews, we  shall  still  find  that  the  fundamental  principles  of 
all  wise  legislation,  and  the  basis  of  the  science  of  jurispru- 
dence, is  contained  in  that  first  written  code  of  laws  known 
to  history.  Dr.  Spring,  in  his  lecture  on  "  TJie  obligations  of 
Legislative  Science  to  the  Bible"  has  specified  various  partic- 
ulars in  which  the  Mosaic  laws  have  not  been  surpassed  by 
the  enactments  of  any  succeeding  code,  especially  in  respect 
to  personal  rights,  and  the  transactions  of  ordinary  life. — 
Says  he,  "  the  caution  with  which  the  Mosaic  laws  prevent- 
ed the  accumulation  of  debt ;  the  fidelity  writh  which  they 
required  the  restoration  of  lost  property ;  the  restoring  of 
property  which  was  injured,  or  stolen,  in  the  lormer  case,  to 
the  full  amount  of  its  original  value,  and  in  the  latter,  to 
double  that  amount,  and  the  distinctness  and  simplicity  of 
the  law  of  bailment,  are  replete  with  instruction  to  every 
succeeding  generation  of  men.  Any  man  who  carefully 
reads  that  beautiful  treatise  of  Sir  William  Jones  on  this  last 
subject,  will  see  that  all  the  leading  principles  of  the  law  of 
bailment,  there  illustrated,  are  found  in  the  law  of  Moses. — 
In  the  Mosaic  code  you  find  the  following  law  in  relation  to 
injuries  arising  from  carelessness  and  inattention  :  "  If  a  man 
shall  open  a  pit,  or  if  a  man  shall  dig  a  pit,  and  shall  not 
cover  it,  and  an  ox  or  an  ass  fall  therein,  the  owner  of  the 
pit  shall  make  it  good,  and  give  money  unto  the  owner  of 
them  ;  and  the  dead  beast  shall  be  his.  And  if  one  man's 
ox  hurt  another's  that  he  die,  then  they  shall  sell  the  live  ox 
and  divide  the  money  of  it ;  and  the  dead  ox  also  they  shall 
divide."  (Exodus,  21  :  33,  35.)  This  law  contains  the  germ 


13 

of  all  the  existing  refinements  of  the  law  of  injuries  arising 
from  want  of  care,  and  those  arising  without  fault.  There 
is  a  nice  equity  in  this  law,  where  upon  payment  for  the 
damages  '  the  beast  shall  be  his'  who  was  the  occasion  of  the 
injury.  The  division  of  the  loss,  too,  where  neither  party  is 
in  fault,  is  a  very  refined  notion  of  equity.  It  is  the  rule  at  the 
present  day,  in  the  case  of  the  collision  of  ships,  and  is  both 
more  equitable  and  more  tender  than  leaving  the  loss  upon 
that  party  who,  by  accident,  first  sustains  it.  Dividing  the 
loss  also  greatly  diminished  the  temptation  to  quarrel  about 
the  probable  fault,  and  to  prevent  litigation,  and  this  is  a 
cardinal  object  of  all  wise  governments.  *  *  *  The  law 
of  depositaries,  or  the  law  concerning  property  given  in 
charge  for  safe  keeping,  is  not  to  be  surpassed  for  wisdom 
and  equity :  and  all  the  refinements  of  the  law  to  this  day, 
do  not  carry  the  principle  any  farther.  No  rule  of  damages, 
in  cases  of  seduction,  is  so  wise  as^that  in  the  law  of  Moses. 
It  is  the  usual  one  lawyers  now  present  to  juries,  where  the 
case  is  one  of  real  deception.  These,  and  other  similar  laws, 
are  expressive  of  great  wisdom,  and  have  been  uniformly 
honored  by  all  wise  and  benevolent  legislators." 

History,  too,  according  to  Dr.  S.,  testifies  to  the  obligations 
which  modern  jurisprudence  owes  to  that  code  of  law  of 
which  we  speak.  It  cannot  be  doubted,  that  the  surround- 
ing nations  \vere  acquainted  with  the  Jewish  code  of  laws. 
Egypt,  Persia,  and  Greece  herself,  felt  the  influence  of  that 
code.  Many  points  of  resemblance,  between  the  laws  of  the 
Hebrews  and  those  of  the  Greeks,  have  been  traced  out  by 
learned  writers.  Not  to  speak  of  others,  it  may  be  interest- 
ing to  mention,  that  in  the  history  of  the  common  law  of 
England,  written  by  that  eminent  jurist,  Sir  Matthew  Hale, 
it  is  declared,  that  there  is  almost  an  exact  resemblance  be- 
tween the  codes  in  these  two  nations  in  regard  to  the  law  of 
descents. 

The  Roman  faw,  which  was  collected  and  reduced  to  sys- 
tem under  the  direction  of  the  Emperor  Justinian,  is  the  foun- 
dation of  modern  civil  jurisprudence.  No  pains  were  spared 
in  its  compilation  and  arrangements.  The  regal  constitu- 
tions of  their  ancient  kings,  the  twelve  tables  of  the  decem- 


14 

viri,  the  edicts  of  the  praetors,  and  the  opinions  of  learned 
lawyers  were  examined,  and  from  their  immense  stores  the 
"  body  of  the  civil  law"  was  formed.  But  it  is  a  matter  of 
history,  that  when  the  twelve  tables  were  formed,  the  laws 
of  Greece  were  carefully  examined,  and  the  element  infused 
into  the  Grecian  codes  from  that  of  Moses,  doubtless  thus 
found  its  way  into  the  Roman  law. 

In  the  History  of  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  by  Sis- 
mondi,  it  is  said  that  when  Alfred  the  Great,  who,  as  is  well 
known,  collected  a  portion  of  the  common  law  of  England, 
"caused  a  republication  of  Saxon  laws,  he  inserted  several 
laws,  taken  from  the  Jewish  ritual,  into  his  statutes,  as  if 
to  give  new  strength  and  cogency  to  the  principles  of  morali- 
ty." "  And  hence,"  says  Dr.  S.,  "it  is  no  uncommon  thing  in 
the  early  English  reporters,  to  find  frequent  references  to  the 
Mosaic  law."  Sismondi  also  states,  he  continues,  that  one 
of  the  first  acts  of  the  clergy  under  Pepin  and  Charlemagne 
of  France,  was  to  introduce  into  the  legislation  of  the  Franks, 
several  of  the  Mosaic  laws  found  in  the  books  of  Deuterono- 
my and  Leviticus.  The  learned  Michaelis,  who  was  professor 
of  law  in  the  University  of  Gottingen,  remarks,  "  that  a  man 
who  considers  law  philosophically,  who  would  survey  them 
with  the  eye  of  a  Montesquieu,  would  never  overlook  the 
laws  of  Moses.  And  one  of  the  most  distinguished  states- 
men of  our  own  country,  whose  name  will  always  live  in 
American  history,  the  celebrated  Fisher  Ames,  remarked 
that  "  no  man  could  be  a  sound  lawyer,  who  was  not  well 
read  in  the  laws  of  Moses." 

It  thus  appears  that  Legal  Science  is  under  peculiar  obli- 
gations to  the  Bible  and  the  Christian  religion  ;  that  it  is  in- 
debted to  Divine  Revelation  for  the  very  principles  and  ge- 
nius of  its  institutions.  The  highest  glory  of  Human  Law  is, 
that  it  is  the  reflection  of  the  Divine  ;  faint  indeed,  and  far 
ess  glorious  than  its  original,  yet  irradiated  with  splendors 
from  its  heavenly  source,  which  justly  command  our  admira- 
tion and  respect. 

If  this  be  so,  then  the  Bible  should  find  its  warmest  friends 
and  supporters  among  the  members  of  the  legal  profession. 
It  should  be  regarded  indeed  as  a  text  book,  wherein  the 


15 

principles  of  that  noble  science,  of  which  they  are  the  ex- 
pounders and  administrators,  are  laid  down  and  enforced  with 
all  the  authority  of  Divinity.  Containing  the  first  code 
of  law  which  was  ever  recognized  among  men,  and  which 
came  from  the  hand  of  a  Divine  Legislator,  embodying  prin- 
ciples which  have  largely  entered  into  the  various  systems 
of  human  jurisprudence,  and  reflecting  upon  them  something 
of  the  grandeur  and  dignity  of  the  Divine  Original,  it  is 
worthy  to  be  had  in  the  highest  reverence  and  admiration  by 
that  important  and  honorable  profession  whose  relations  and 
duties  are  now  under  consideration. 

But  we  think  that  the  Bible  is  worthy  of  such  respect  and 
admiration,  because  of  the  special  honor  which  it  seems  to 
do  to  the  legal  profession.  The  most  superficial  reader  of 
its  pages  cannot  have  failed  to  notice  that  frequent  allusion 
is  made  to  the  forms  and  proceedings  of  legal  tribunals,  as 
well  representing  that  most  august  and  solemn  transaction 
to  which  all  human  life  is  tending,  and  upon  which  all  the 
events  which  are  transpiring  around  us,  are  exerting  a  most 
important  influence.  There  is  a  scene  which  is  to  be  enact- 
ed before  the  moral  universe,  of  which  no  type  or  representa- 
tion could  be  found,  save  in  the  solemnities  and  forms  of  a 
court  of  justice.  The  Judge  is  to  be  seated  on  the  Bench, 
arrayed  in  all  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  that  position,  and 
to  conduct  the  trial  of  the  world  according  to  the  principles 
and  requirements  of  an  infinite  and  eternal  Law.  The  indi- 
viduals to  be  tried  are  to  appear  before  the  tribunal.  The 
law  is  there,  the  evidence  is  there,  recorded  in  massive  vol- 
umes then  to  be  opened,  for  the  acquittal  or  condemnation  of 
those  who  are  on  trial.  It  is,  to  our  mind,  a  circumstance 
worthy  of  notice,  that  the  Holy  Scriptures,  when  they  would 
represent  the  most  solemn  and  momentous  transaction  in 
which  men  can  be  engaged,  and  shadow  it  forth  in  a  most 
striking  and  impressive  form,  should  have  selected  a  scene 
with  which  the  members  of  the  legal  profession  are  most  fa- 
miliar, and  in  which  they  are  most  frequently  the  actors. — 
This  could  never  have  been  the  case  were  this  profession  an 
unnecessary  and  injurious  one  to  the  interests  of  human  so- 
ciety, or  the  scenes  of  its  practice  other  than  solemn  and  ira- 


16 

pressive.  It  may  indeed  be  the  case  that  our  courts  are  bur- 
dened with  much  unnecessary  and  frivolous  litigation.  But 
he  who  can  be  indifferent  to  the  scenes  which  are  sometimes 
enacted  there,  when  man's  dearest  interests  are  involved  in 
the  issue,  must  have  lost  his  sensibility  to  all  that  is  solemn 
and  overwhelming  in  interest  and  impressiveness.  When 
we  see  an  earthly  tribunal  sitting  in  judgment  upon  the  case 
of  an  individual  whose  life  is  at  stake,  it  is  to  us  a  fitting 
type  of  that  tremendous  scene  which  is  to  be  presented  at 
the  last  great  day.  The  position  and  office  of  the  Judge  ac- 
quires additional  solemnity  and  dignity  in  our  estimation,  as 
we  remember  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  make  Him  a  type  of 
that  Great  Being  who  shall  sit  upon  "  the  great  white  throne," 
and  "judge  the  world  in  righteousness."  The  office  of  the 
Advocate  also  gathers  fresh  claims  to  our  consideration  when 
we  recall  that  language  of  the  inspired  Apostle  which  de- 
clares that  "  if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  Advocate  with  the 
Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  Righteous."  The  whole  scene  gath- 
ers force  and  impressiveness  from  the  consideration  that  the 
Divine  Spirit  has  used  it  in  the  sacred  volume  to  describe 
and  image  forth  that  most  stupendous  transaction  which  the 
universe  is  to  behold — the  final  judgment. 

And  if  this  be  so, — if  the  Divine  Spirit  has  singled  out 
from  among  all  the  scenes  which  are  enacted  among  men, 
those  \vhich  lie  in  the  daily  path  of  the  legal  profession,  and 
in  which  they  are  the  principal  actors,  to  represent  that  event 
to  which  all  the  providences  of  God,  and  all  the  actions  of 
men,  are  tending,  which  is  to  be  the  winding  up  of  the  affairs 
of  Time,  and  the  opening  of  the  unchanging  destinies  of 
Eternity — it  is  to  us  no  slight  tribute  to  the  dignity  and  the 
majesty  of  earthly  tribunals,  and  to  those  who  are  called  to 
administer  their  lofty  behests.  Their  character  should  ever 
be  such  as  to  make  them  worthy  of  the  sublime  association. 

It  has  also  seemed  to  us  that  the  members  of  the  legal 
profession  were  under  peculiar  obligation  to  examine  fairly 
into  the  divine  claims  of  Christianity.  The  very  nature  of 
their  profession  leads  them  to  habits  of  the  nicest  investi- 
gation, and  the  most  rigid  scrutiny  of  evidence.  Testimony 
is  everything  with  them.  We  are  not  insensible  to  the 


17 

power  and  value  of  eloquence  in  our  tribunals  of  law.  We 
have  listened  with  admiration  to  an  earnest  and  impassioned 
advocate,  in  his  plea  for  an  unfortunate  client  whose  liberty 
or  life  was  in  danger.  We  have  seen  the  rapt  attention^of 
bench,  bar,  jury,  and  spectators — the  breathless  silence — the 
rapidly-varying  expression — the  deep-drawn  sigh — yea,  the 
sob — the  tear  that  testified  to  the  power  of  the  speaker,  as 
he  touched  with  a  master-hand  the  deepest  chords  within 
the  soul,  and  swept  them  at  his  pleasure.  We  know  that 
some  of  the  noblest  efforts  of  genius,  and  some  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  eloquence,  have  graced  the  annals  of  tribunals 
of  law.  But  even  in  these  cases,  the  foundation  of  the 
masterly  argument — the  vivid  description — the  thrilling  ap- 
peal, was  the  evidence ;  and  the  great  effort  of  the  advocate 
was  to  place  that  before  the  minds  of  his  auditors,  and  give 
it  a  thousand  voices,  that  it  might  speak  conviction  either  of 
the  guilt  or  innocence  of  his  client,  to  the  minds  of  those 
who  were  the  arbiters  of  his  destiny.  To  place  the  evidence 
clearly  before  the  jury — to  sift  it  thoroughly  and  keenly — to 
examine  and  cross-examine,  until  everything  which  has  a 
direct  or  remote  bearing  upon  the  case,  is  brought  out  as 
clearly  and  unequivocally  as  possible,  "  hie  labor,  hoc  opus 
est"  in  conducting  a  case.  Therefore  lawyers,  from  the 
very  nature  of  their  profession,  should  and  do  attach  great 
weight  to  evidence,  and  make  it  a  principle  to  take  nothing 
for  granted.  But  the  system  of  Christianity  is  one  which 
proffers  its  high  claims  to  universal  reception  upon  the  in- 
fallible evidence  which  it  adduces.  It  asks  nothing  at  the 
hands  of  man  but  a  thorough  examination  of  that  evidence. 
It  invites  the  most  rigid,  and  only  asks  that  it  be  a  candid 
scrutiny.  The  testimony  of  miracles,  of  prophecy,  of  the 
noble  and  exalted  system  of  morals  it  proposes — the  perfect 
agreement  of  all  parts  of  its  great  text-book  with  each 
other,  and  with  profane  history — the  character  of  the  writers, 
and  the  moral  effects  which  it  has  produced  upon  the  world ; 
this  chain  of  testimony,  which  has  stood  the  assaults  of  un- 
believers for  two  thousand  years,  and  of  which  not  a  link  is 
broken,  Christianity  offers  to  the  world.  Who  then  so  fitted, 
by  the  very  nature  of  their  daily  avocations,  to  examine  and 
2 


18 

feel  the  force  of  the  evidences  of  Christianity,  as  the  mem- 
bers of  the  legal  profession?  There  never  was  a  case  adju- 
dicated in  a  court,  where  the  evidence  was  as  conclusive 
and  overwhelming  as  that  which  Christianity  adduces  ;  and 
she  appeals  with  peculiar  force  to  those  who  are,  by  the 
very  nature  of  their  profession,  fitted  to  appreciate  and  in- 
vestigate claims  thus  presented  and  supported.  To  be  an 
unbeliever  in  Christianity,  then,  seems  to  be  peculiarly  in- 
consistent in  a  member  of  the  legal  profession.  To  reject  a 
system  which  challenges  the  nicest  scrutiny  of  the  evidence 
which  supports  it,  and  presents  a  chain  of  testimony  which 
would  carry  instant  conviction  to  the  minds  of  any  unpre- 
judiced tribunal,  is  unworthy  of  those  who  are  accustomed 
daily  to  the  examination  of  evidence  with  careful  scrutiny, 
and  the  most  minute  and  thorough  investigation,  and  to 
base  their  opinions,  and  their  line  of  action,  upon  the  results 
of  such  examination.  Let  lawyers  give  to  the  evidences  of 
Christianity  the  same  scrutiny,  subject  them  to  the  same 
searching  process,  examine  and  cross-examine  with  the 
same  critical  acumen  which  they  display  in  the  conduct  of 
their  cases  in  the  courts,  and  they  will  be  convinced  that 
Christianity  has  fully  established  her  case,  and  that  the  evi- 
dences of  her  divine  character  cannot  be  invalidated. 

Again :  To  be  not  only  a  believer  in  Christianity,  but 
practically  to  honor  its  claims  in  daily  life,  seems  to  be,  in  a 
peculiar  sense,  binding  upon  the  members  of  that  profession, 
whose  obligations  and  duties  we  are  considering.  They  are 
the  guardians,  defenders,  expounders,  and  administrators  of 
the  law.  They  are  sworn  to  maintain  and  advance  the  inte- 
rests of  truth  and  justice.  They  are  to  see  that  the  good 
are  protected,  and  that  the  bad  are  punished.  Every  kind 
of  crime  is  to  be  by  them  rebuked,  and  its  perpetrators  held 
up  to  deserved  reprobation.  The  dearest  earthly  interests 
of  society  are  to  be  protected  by  them,  and,  in  fine,  there  is 
no  class  of  men  on  earth,  except  the  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
who  are  called  to  such  a  noble  and  important  vocation. 
But  does  it  not  seem  to  be  a  striking  inconsistency,  that  he 
who  is  set  for  the  maintenance  and  observance  of  human, 
should  himself  be  a  violator  of  the  divine,  law  ?  Does  it  not 


19 

seem  to  be  in  the  highest  degree  consistent  with  his  profes- 
sional obligations  and  responsibilities,  that  he  who  is  the 
expounder  and  minister  of  that  law  which  has  been  well 
said  by  Mr.  Warren  to  be  "  that  power  by  which  civil 
society  is  constituted  and  sustained  in  existence,  overpower- 
ing the  unruly  elements  of  our  fallen  nature  ;  with  heaven- 
born  energy  converting  the  savage  into  the  citizen,  making 
the  wilderness  to  bloom  and  blossom  as  the  rose,  redolent  of 
the  balmy  air  of  peace  and  order,  and  surrounding  its  con- 
fines with  impregnable  bulwarks  against  brute  force  and 
arbitrary  will  ;"  does  it  not,  we  say,  seem  in  the  highest 
degree  consistent  for  him  who  is  the  minister  of  a  system  so 
noble  and  beneficial,  to  respect  profoundly,  and  obey  faith- 
fully, that  "higher  law"  of  which  this  is  but  the  shadow  and 
the  abridgement  ?  Shall  he  who  inculcates  the  duty  of  obe- 
dience to  the  laws  of  man,  himself  set  the  example  of  dis- 
obedience to  the  laws  of  God?  Shall  he  who  expounds  and 
maintains  the  enactments  and  requirements  of  human  legis- 
lators, and  whose  professional  life  is  regulated  and  con- 
trolled by  these,  and  whose  business  it  is  to  see  that  by  their 
proper  interpretation  and  application,  the  order  and  pros- 
perity of  human  society  are  preserved  and  advanced,  be  re- 
gardless as  to  the  ordering  of  his  life  by  the  principles  of 
that  law  "  whose  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  and  whose  voice 
is  the  harmony  of  the  universe  ?"  Inasmuch  as  human  law 
is  the  creature  of  the  divine,  and  shining  with  reflected 
light,  feebly  images  forth  the  glories  of  its  sublime  original, 
with  what  propriety  or  consistency  can  the  lawyer  insist 
upon  the  claims  of  the  less,  without  a  practical  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  obligations  of  the  greater  ?  Shall  the  puny 
articulations  of  the  legislators  of  earth  command  his  per- 
sonal respect,  and  claim  the  devotement  of  his  noblest 
talents  and  his  most  precious  time,  and  shall  he  refuse  to 
hear  and  obey  the  mighty  utterances  of  the  great  Lawgiver 
of  the  Universe  ?  Shall  he  spare  no  pains  to  bring  the 
offender  against  the  laws  of  his  country  to  merited  punish- 
ment, and  thus  secure  the  best  welfare  of  that  country,  and 
yet  never  feel  within  his  bosom  a  pang  of  bitter  self-con- 
demnation for  his  own  daily  breaches  of  the  laws  of  God's 


20 

moral  universe,  which,  in  their  infraction,  bring  the  direst 
confusion,  wretchedness,  and  ruin  upon  the  great  family  of 
man  ?  Shall  he  stand  up  to  plead  for  a  fellow  man  arraign- 
ed at  the  bar  of  an  earthly  court,  and  not" ask,  "  who  will  be 
my  advocate  before  the  tribunal  above  ?"  Shall  he  engage 
in  the  daily  business  of  the  court,  and  not  be  reminded  of 
that  assize  where  he  must  soon  appear,  not  as  an  advocate, 
but  as  a  client ;  not  as  a  minister,  but  as  a  subject  of  law  ? 
No  conformity  or  devotion  to  the  law  of  man,  will  be  re- 
ceived at  that  day  as  a  substitute  for  a  constant  neglect  of 
the  laws  of  God.  Yea  !  his  must  be  an  aggravated  con- 
demnation. Next  to  him  who  appears  as  the  herald  of  the 
skies,  God's  ambassador  to  men,  and  is  faithless  to  his  trust, 
must  he  stand  in  depth  of  guilt  and  ^bitterness  of  condem- 
nation, whose  earthly  vocation  it  was  to  uphold  the  majesty 
and  the  sanctions  of  law  and  justice  among  his  fellow  men, 
and  was  yet  regardless  of  the  law  of  God.  If  any  man 
should  be  rebuked  by  his  daily  vocation  for  an  irreligious 
life,  by  the  very  principles  which  he  is  called  upon  daily  to 
uphold,  defend,  and  apply,  it  should  be  a  member  of  the 
legal  profession.  Its  high  vocation,  and  honorable  and  im- 
portant mission,  impose  upon  it  peculiar  and  proportionably 
solemn  responsibilities.  And  will  it  not  be  seen  to  be  a 
truth  in  its  application  to  this  most  honorable  profession, 
that  a  solemn  sense  of  the  paramount  obligations  of  the  law 
of  God,  and  a  consistent  practical  obedience  to  that  law,  is 
entirely  compatible  with  and  friendly  to  the  most  distin- 
guished attainments  in  jurisprudence,  and  the  highest  honors 
of  the  bench  or  the  bar.  The  names  of  Hale,  and  Selden, 
and  Marshall,  and  Reeve,  and  Sherman,  give  ample  testi- 
mony to  the  truth  of  this,  in  whom  the  attainments  and 
honors  of  the  jurist  were  so  beautifully  blended  with  the 
faith  and  graces  of  the  Christian. 

Again  :  The  peculiar  relation  which  the  members  of  the 
bar  sustain  to  the  community,  makes  it  in  the  highest  degree 
desirable  that  they  should  be  men  actuated  by  pure  Christian 
principle.  We  have  already  adverted  to  the  fact  that  the 
bar  is  the  high-road  to  preferment ;  that  lawyers  generally 
are  our  public  men,  who  make  our  laws,  administer  our 


21 

government,  and  have  our  national  honor  in  keeping.  In 
these  public  relations  it  is  easy  to  see  how  desirable  it  is 
that  they  should  be  pure,  upright,  God-fearing  men.  But 
we  speak  now  more  particularly  of  that  intimate  and  confi- 
dential relation  which,  as  lawyers,  they  sustain  to  the  com- 
munity, and  to  their  clients.  The  character  of  that  relation 
has  been  well  described  by  Mr.  Warren,  and  we  therefore 
quote  his  words  at  length.  He  remarks,  addressing  lawyers : 

"  Gentlemen,  I  repeat,  speaking  as  one  of  the  public,  that 
we  could  not  do  without  you  even  if  we  wished.  Whatever 
be  our  talents  or  acquirements,  whatever  our  tempers  and 
dispositions,  whether  amiable  and  yielding,  or  exacting,  irri- 
table and  overbearing — whether  we  be  virtuous  or  profli- 
gate, we  may  have  to  take  you  into  our  confidence,  and  open 
to  you  the  most  secret  recesses  of  our  hearts.  We  tell  you 
what  we  would  declare  to  no  one  else  on  earth  ;  we  pour 
into  your  ears  the  accents  of  anguish  all  but  unutterable  ; 
to  your  eyes  are  exposed  hearts  bleeding  and  quivering  in 
every  fibre,  pierced  by  the  serpent's  tooth  of  ingratitude, 
broken  by  the  toss  of  those  whom  we  love  more  than  life 
itself,  whether  taken  from  our  arms  by  death,  or  ravished 
from  us  by  fiendish  lust  or  the  ruthless  ruffian  hand  of  vio- 
lence. When  our  domestic  peace  is  slain — when  the  most 
hallowed  relations  of  life,  and  society  are  dislocated  by  the 
evil  passions  of  others — by  cupidity  perfidy,  fraud  hypo- 
crisy, malice  and  revenge — in  short,  whether  our  honor,  our 
life,  our  liberty,  our  property,  or  those  of  our  families,  are 
endangered  or  outraged,  to  you  per  force  we  must  fly  in  our 
extremity :  living  or  dying,  yes,  I  say  dying,  for  we  descend 
into  the  grave  in  relianie  on  the  discretion  and  integrity 
with  which  you  have  undertaken  to  carry  into  effect  our 
wishes  on  behalf  of  those  loved  ones  whom  we  are  leaving 
behind  us,  whom  we  would  fain  shelter  as  far  as  we  may 
from  calamity  and  the  world's  reverses,  by  providing  for 
them  out  of  the  produce  of  a  life's  labor,  anxiety,  and  priva- 
tion ;  and  we  look  to  do  all  this  through  the  instrumentality 
of  your  judicious  and  conscientious  exertions. 

"  When  the  shaft  of  calumny  has  wounded  us,  it  is  to  you 
that  we  fly  to  vindicate  our  smarting  honor ;  into  your  ear 
are  poured  the  affrighted  accents  of  those  to  whom  guilt  is 
imputed  ;  crime  of  fearful  enormity,  attaching  infamy  mad- 
dening to  contemplate — crime,  too,  which  may  be  falsely 
imputed  to  him  whom  the  mere  imputation  is  blighting  be- 
fore your  very  eyes,  and  who,  in  his  agony  and  horror,  has 


22 

sent  for  you — has  summoned  you  that  he  may  listen,  in  the 
dread  gloom  of  a  prison  cell,  to  your  sympathizing  words  of 
counsel  and  guidance — that  he  may  whisper  into  your  ear 
the  indignant  protestations  of  an  innocence  which  with  con- 
fiding eagerness  relies  on  you  for  its  vindication." 

This  peculiar,  intimate,  and  confidential  relation,  renders 
it  especially  desirable  that  they  in  whom  we  are  thus  oblig- 
ed to  confide,  should  be  worthy  of  the  trust.  They  should  be 
men  of  sterling  integrity,  purity,  and  honor — of  quick  sym- 
pathies— of  nice  discrimination — of  refined  delicacy  of  feel- 
ing. We  do  not  say  that  all  these  may  not  be  possessed  in 
a  good  degree  where  there  is  not  piety,  for  we  think  we 
have  known  such  cases ;  but  it  is  certainly  true  that  there 
is  greater  security  where  religion  adds  her  graces  to  the 
character,  and  gives  also  to  natural  endowments  a  crown- 
ing glory.  The  influence  which  the  lawyer  may  have  over 
his  client,  growing  out  of  the  confidential  relation  existing 
between  them,  may  be  immense.  He  becomes  acquainted 
with  his  secrets,  his  embarrassments,  his  perplexities,  his 
fears,  his  trials  ;  he  often  takes  his  property  into  his  hands,  or 
what  is  far  more  precious,  his  reputation  ;  his  client  is  forced 
to  put  himself  entirely  in  his  power,  and  commit  to  his  dis- 
cretion and  fidelity  the  guardianship  of  his  dearest  interests. 
Surely  there  is  great  opportunity  for  the  abuse  of  influence, 
the  perversion  of  power,  here  ;  how  difficult  for  poor  human 
nature  to  maintain  under  such  circumstances  always  a 
spirit  of  integrity  and  disinterestedness,  and  how  valuable 
the  aids  of  true  piety  !  Here,  again,  we  quote  from  Mr. 
Warren,  and  give  you  a  few  sentences  from  the  close  of  one 
of  his  lectures.  After  presenting,  in  a  very  comprehensive 
and  forcible  sketch,  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the 
profession,  he  proceeds : 

"  Well  may  you  modestly  ask,  who  is  sufficient  for  these 
things  ?  You  cannot  become  so  except  through  help  from 
on  high.  I  tell  you  that  your  character  will  be  utterly  rot- 
ten, all  your  resolution  and  efforts  abortive,  unless  under  the 
constant  influence  of  piety  and  virtue,  ruling  the  heart  and 
directing  the  will  on  all  occasions  whatsoever.  Oh,  let  not  an 
immortal  spirit  bow  itself  into  the  dust,  forgetful  of  its  high 
destiny,  and  becoming  of  the  earth,  earthy.  It  can  degrade 


23 

itself,  but  cannot  get  rid  of  those  awful  responsibilities  which 
it  has  incurred  in  this  transitory  scene  of  probation.  Forget 
not  God,  but  remember  him  constantly,  and  obey  his  pre- 
cepts. Piety  and  virtue  will  give  you  true  elevation  of  cha- 
racter— can  alone  extinguish  envy,  hatred,  malice,  and  un- 
charitableness — extract  the  sting  from  adversity — dignify 
even  failure,  and  add  unspeakable  sweetness  to  success." 

Finally  :  We  think  that  the  peculiar  temptations  of  the 
legal  profession  are  such  as  to  demand  the  aids  and  influ- 
ences of  piety.  We  trust  that  we  have  expressed,  in  suffi- 
ciently explicit  terms,  the  high  estimation  in  which  we  hold 
both  the  science  and  the  practice  of  jurisprudence.  There 
is  a  well  known  passage  from  Hooker,  one  of  the  ablest  of 
the  old  English  divines,  of  the  sixteenth  century,  which  ex- 
presses in  masterful  style  what  ought  to  be  every  man's 
opinion.  It  is  this  : 

"Of  law  there  can  be  no  less  acknowledged  than  that  her 
seat  is  the  bosom  of  God — her  voice  the  harmony  of  the 
world  ;  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage — the 
very  least  as  feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as  not  ex- 
empted from  her  power :  both  angels  and  men,  and  creatures 
of  what  condition  soever,  though  each  in  different  sort  and 
manner,  yet  all  with  uniform  consent  admiring  her  as  the 
mother  of  their  peace  and  joy."* 

And  in  Sir  James  Mackintosh's  "  Discourse  on  the  Law  of 
Nature  and  Nations,"  occurs  the  following  forcible  passage : 

"  There  is  not,  in  my  opinion,  in  the  whole  compass  of 
human  affairs,  so  noble  a  spectacle  as  that  which  is  display- 
ed in  the  progress  of  jurisprudence  ;  where  we  may  con- 
template the  cautious  and  unwearied  exertions  of  wise  men 
through  a  long  course  of  ages,  withdrawing  every  case  as  it 
arises,  from  the  dangerous  power  of  discretion,  and  subject- 
ing it  to  inflexible  rules,  extending  the  dominion  of  justice 
and  reason,  and  gradually  contracting  within  the  narrowest 
possible  limits  the  domain  of  brutal  force  and  arbitrary 
will." 

Yet  noble  as  is  the  science,  and  essential  to  the  well  being 
of  society,  and  honorable  as  is  the  practice  of  jurisprudence, 

*  Hooker's  Works,  p.  240. 


24 

it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  are  great  and  peculiar  temp- 
tations connected  with  it.  The  lawyer,  immersed  in  the 
duties  of  his  practice,  may  sometimes  fail  to  keep  before  his 
mind's  eye  "the  lofty  and  everlasting  principles  of  virtue 
and  justice,  which  are  concerned  in  the  structure  of  law," 
and  is  in  danger  of  overlooking  the  importance  of  always  so 
using  his  office  as  to  "  magnify  and  make  it  honorable." 

There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the  legal  profession,  as  Dr. 
Boardman  remarks — "  Its  daily  element  is  controversy."  This 
is  the  source  of  its  great  temptations.  The  excitements  of 
the  judicial  arena  are  not  altogether  favorable  to  the  preser- 
vation of  a  candid,  even,  magnanimous  temper,  free  from 
envy,  malice,  petulance,  and  an  unscrupulousness  in  the  use 
of  means  ;  nor  is  this  arena  always  the  scene  of  that  noblest 
of  all  victories — the  conquest  of  self. 

"  There  is  no  sphere,"  continues  Dr.  B.,  "  in  which  inte- 
grity is  of  greater  value,  and  none  where  it  is  more  rigor- 
ously tested,  than  at  the  bar.  The  temptations  to  swerve 
from  it  are  of  daily  recurrence,  and  are  sometimes  clothed 
with  a  most  specious  garb.  The  profession  has  to  do  with 
two  classes  of  persons — the  wronged  and  the  wrong  doers. 
And  to  deal  with  either  as  their  confidential  adviser,  in  a 
perfectly  frank,  straightforward,  and  kind  manner,  demands 
a  stern  and  lofty  virtue.  We  know  how  difficult  this  is  in 
private  life  ;  and  the  difficulty  must  be  greatly  increased 
when  the  parties  bear  to  each  other  the  relation  of  client 
and  counsel.  Among  men  who  live  by  the  law — who  look 
to  it  for  support  and  for  fame,  the  inducements  must  be  very 
strong  to  encourage  litigation.  It  has  always  been  the  op- 
probrium of  the  profession,  that  it  was  infested  by  indivi- 
duals who  were  ready  on  all  occasions  to  pander  to  the 
basest  passions,  and  to  become  the  instruments  of  the  avari- 
cious, the  revengeful,  and  the  hard-hearted,  in  oppressing 
their  victims.  Such  men  unhappily  rarely  want  for  clients." 

Yet,  while  this  is  true,  there  are  many  instances  where 
the  lawyer  has  been  the  means  of  settling  on  an  amicable 
basis  a  case  of  difference  which  might  have  grown  under  his 
fostering  care  into  a  vexatious  protracted  litigation,  involv- 
ing not  only  a  ruinous  expenditure  of  property,  but  cherish- 
ing every  malignant  feeling  of  the  heart,  and  entailing  some- 


25 

times  a  deadly  feud  upon  after  generations.  The  public  are 
not  aware  how  often  the  legal  profession,  frequently  repre- 
sented as  a  promoter  of  strife  and  discord,  is  entitled  rather 
to  the  noble  benediction,  "  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers." 

Yet  the  temptations  are  certainly  very  powerful  the  other 
way.  It  is  no  easy  thing  for  one  whose  character  and  sup- 
port are  dependant  upon  his  professional  business,  to  refuse 
any  case  that  offers,  or  any  side  of  any  case.  When  clients 
come  excited  and  heated  by  real  or  fancied  injuries,  to  seek 
from  their  attorney  the  redress  which  the  law  provides — 
when  they  demand  that  the  screws  shall  be  applied  without 
mercy,  and  every  means  of  harassing  and  crushing  their 
adversary  shall  be  put  into  operation  which  the  mighty  en- 
gine of  the  law  can  furnish,  it  requires  very  high  and  noble 
views  of  duty  to  rise  above  the  promptings  of  self-interest, 
and  endeavor  to  soothe  their  excitement — examine  into  the 
real  merits  of  the  case,  and  endeavor  to  settle  it  by  an  equi- 
table compromise.  It  requires  a  lofty  moral  courage,  espe- 
cially in  one  who  is  young,  and  naturally  ambitious  of  rising 
in  his  profession,  to  decline  a  case  presented,  either  on 
account  of  its  frivolous  character  or  its  injustice,  and  to  re- 
fuse peremptorily  to  allow  his  client  to  attempt  not  only  to 
perpetrate  a  wrong  under  color  of  law,  but  to  do  it  through 
his  agency.  And  there  is  equal  need  of  stern  virtue  in  the 
conducting  of  a  case,  when  rightfully  undertaken,  in  the 
avoidance  of  any  of  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  the  packing  of 
juries — the  brow-beating  and  intimidation  of  witnesses — the 
misquoting  or  straining  of  authorities — the  appeal  to  the 
baser  passions,  or  to  sectional  or  political  preferences — the 
attempt  to  direct  the  mind  from  the  real  question  at  issue, 
and  secure  a  verdict  on  other  grounds  than  its  real  merits. 
All  these  things  may  purchase  the  reputation  of  being  a 
very  keen  lawyer,  but  this  is  not  the  same  thing  with  being 
a  true,  honorable  man.  Let  him  contend  for  the  rights  of 
his  client  as  firmly  as  he  may,  but  let  him  contend  fairly ; 
let  him  remember  the  f  ..indamental  principle,  "  suum  cuique 
tribuere"  and  apply  it  oven  to  his  opponent,  so  that  if  suc- 
cessful his  laurels  may  be  greener  because  fairly  won,  and, 
if  unsccessful,  he  may  at  least  console  himself  writh  the  re- 


26 

flection  that  he  contended  honorably,  and  suffers  no  disgrace 
in  failure. 

Lawyers  often  see  the  worst  side  of  human  nature.  Ava- 
rice, revenge,  malice,  cupidity,  falsehood,  often  come  to  them 
to  seek,  by  their  means,  to  gain  their  wicked  ends.  They 
may  hold  out  a  glittering  bribe  to  influence  the  counsel  they 
consult,  and  win  them  to  their  vile  uses.  They  may  have 
the  letter  of  the  law  on  their  side,  but  not  its  spirit ;  and, 
therefore,  an  honorable,  high-minded  practitioner  will  refuse 
to  prostitute  his  abilities  in  their  cause.  It  needs  a  lofty 
sense  of  the  responsibilities  of  the  profession  to  take  this 
course — to  scorn  to  become  the  knife  with  which  some  mer- 
ciless "fShylock"  will  cut  away  "his  pound  of  flesh" — to 
look  beyond  the  bare  technicalities  of  the  case,  and  ask,  "  Is 
the  spirit  of  the  law  with  my  client?"  We  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  this  temptation  is  never  resisted,  save  by  the  aid  of 
religious  principle :  there  are  men  of  intrinsic  nobleness  of 
mind,  who  would  scorn  to  become  the  agents  of  avarice  or 
revenge  ;  but  it  is  not  always  resisted,  and  it  cannot  be  sure 
of  universal  resistance,  except  the  pure  principles  of  virtue 
and  piety  pervade  the  entire  profession.  Then,  indeed, 
would  this  noble  science,  and  this  honorable  and  useful  pro- 
fession, take  everywhere  the  exalted  rank  which  belongs  to 
it ;  then  would  the  stale  and  groundless  insinuation  that  its 
practice  was  unfriendly  to  integrity  and  virtue,  be  forever 
silenced,  and  its  true  nature  and  excellency  would  be  ac- 
knowledged by  the  world.  Then  would  there  be  more 
numerous  instances  of  men  like  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  of  whom 
his  biographer  has  well  said,  that  "  the  singular  uprightness 
and  piety  of  his  life,  which  excited  the  admiratiou  of  his 
contemporaries  no  less  than  of  posterity,  have  rendered  inte- 
resting to  the  most  ordinary  peruser,  the  quaint  and  senten- 
tious record  of  his  thoughts  and  actions  which  have  been 
transmitted  to  us  by  himself  and  his  historian."  And  what 
a  noble  testimony  is  it  to  his  goodness,  that  "  the  beautiful 
details  of  his  domestic  life  have  rendered  his  memory  even 
more  cherished  by  the  good  and  pious  in  all  professions,  than 
it  is  venerated  on  other  grounds  by  the  learned  of  his  own. 
His  piety  among  his  many  virtues  was  the  most  conspicu- 


27 

ous,  and  is  the  best  remembered."  He  was  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  pious  Baxter,  and  this  intimacy  was  the  source 
of  mutual  advantage  and  pleasure  to  both.  "  Once,  when 
suddenly  called  upon  in  the  capacity  of  counsel,  he  shrank 
not,  like  a  true-hearted  follower  of  Christ,  from  averring  as 
the  reason  of  his  unpreparedness,  that  it  was  late  Saturday 
night  before  he  had  notice  of  the  engagement,  and  that  the 
next  day  was  not  a  day  to  think  of  these  things."  His  con- 
scientious observance  of  the  Sabbath  was  a  trait  in  his  cha- 
racter in  which  he  has  set  a  noble  example  to  the  profession 
of  which  he  was  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments.  Notting- 
ham, Talbot,  and  Blackstone,  all  eminent  jurists,  paid  their 
tribute  to  religion  and  her  claims,  and  proved  that  the  temp- 
tations of  their  profession  and  position  could  be  successfully 
combated  by  the  aid  of  piety. 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  say  that  there  have  not  been  instan- 
ces in  the  legal  profession  of  distinguished  ability  and  of 
high  moral  excellence,  when  there  has  been  no  pretension  to 
piety.  Doubtless  there  have  been  and  are  such  instances. 
"  But,"  as  Dr.  Boardman  well  remarks,  "  it  is  contended  that 
even  in  cases  of  this  sort,  religion  would  impart  an  addition- 
al lustre  to  the  character ;  while  its  influence,  if  diffused 
throughout  the  body,  would  be  most  advantageously  felt  in 
removing  the  prevalent  vices  and  defects  of  the  profession, 
and  augmenting  all  those  virtues  which  make  it  one  of  the 
chief  supports  and  ornaments  of  a  refined  civilization.  What 
the  profession  would  be  if  it  were  consecrated  by  the  perva- 
ding power  of  a  vital  Christianity,  may  be  inferred  from  such 
instances  as  I  have  mentioned,  and  other  examples  of  living 
members  of  the  bar,  of  men  who  combine  the  noblest  intel- 
lectual gifts,  the  most  accurate  and  profound  knowledge  of 
jurisprudence,  rhetorical  abilities  of  a  high  order,  the  purest 
affections,  and  the  greatest  amenity  of  manners,  with  an  en- 
lightened and  unostentatious  piety." 

It  would  be  a  blessed  thing  for  society  if  such  were  the 
character  of  every  member  of  the  legal  profession.  Import- 
ant, useful,  honorable  as  it  is,  its  influence  must  be  great  upon 
the  public  welfare.  It  is  said  that  there  are  more  than  twen- 
ty thousand  lawyers  in  our  country — more  than  one  to  every 


38 

fifteen  huiulred  of  our  population.  Let  this  large  body  of 
men,  who  are,  as  a  class,  well  educated,  intelligent,  honora- 
ble men,  foremost  in  public  life  by  virtue  of  their  peculiar 
relation  to  the  community,  wielding  a  more  universal  and 
universally  powerful  influence  than  any  other  class  of  men — 
our  orators,  our  rulers,  our  ambassadors  to  foreign  nations— 
let  them  be  men  of  moral  worth  and  true  piety,  and  what  a 
blessing  and  a  pride  they  would  be  to  our  country  !  Says 
Dr.  Boardman — 

"  Piety  alone  will  not  fit  men  to  become  jurists,  diploma- 
tists or  legislators.  But  piety  is  the  basis  of  good  morals. 
It  makes  men  conscientious.  It  stimulates  them  to  acquire 
the  qualifications  demanded  by  the  station  Providence  may 
assign  them,  and  puts  them  upon  using  their  abilities  for  the 
best  ends.  If  evangelical  Christianity  were  enthroned,  not 
in  our  halls  of  justice  merely,  but  in  the  hearts  of  all  who 
serve  at  her  altars,  their  great  influence  would  tell  far  more 
auspiciously  than  it  does  now,  upon  the  leading  interests  of 
this  country.  It  would  moderate  the  spirit  of  faction,  the 
bane  of  all  republics.  It  might  repress  the  idolatry  of  mam- 
mon, and  curl)  the  lust  of  conquest,  two  of  the  brood  o£  baser 
passions  which  have  acquired  an  Herculean  growth  in  our 
soil.  It  would  check  the  prevailing  tendency  to  rashand 
hasty  legislation,  and  teach  visionary  reformers  that  they 
*  should  approach  to  the  faults  of  the  state,  as  to  the  wounds 
of  a  father,  with  pious  awe,  and  trembling  solicitude.'  It 
would  be  felt  throughout  all  the  framework  of  society,  in 
extinguishing  vice,  alleviating  misery,  fostering  education, 
and  consolidating  the  institutions  of  Christianity." 

We  would,  then,  respectfully  recommend  to  those  whose 
high  vocation  it  is  to  expound  and  administer  human  law,  to 
study  deeply  its  divine  original  ;  we  would  urge  them  to  be 
familiar  with  its  principles  and  its  precepts  ;  to  recognize  its 
'peculiar  claims  upon  them,  and  to  fulfil  with  fidelity  and 
zeal  all  its  holy  requirements.  Then  shall  their  earthly 
course  be  one  of  honor,  of  usefulness  and  success,  and  when 
at  last  they  appear  before  the  great  tribunal  of  God,  not  to 
conduct  another's  case,  but  for  the  final  adjudication  of  their 
own,  they  shall  receive  a  sentence  of  approval,  from  the 
Judge  of  all,  which  shall  admit  them  to  the  unfading  glories 
and  the  everlasting  joys  of  The  Heaven  of  the  Good. 


